Enriching its portfolio of cloud management software, Red Hat is acquiring ManageIQ, a provider of software that helps organizations manage their virtual machines across public and private clouds.
Red Hat is purchasing ManageIQ for approximately US$104 million in cash, pending approval by ManageIQ stockholders.
ManageIQ's software can monitor cloud usage, help orchestrate complex cloud administration duties, and provide mechanisms for internal billing and governance. The company has configured its software to work with both Red Hat CloudForms -- which is software for managing hybrid clouds -- and the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) package. ManageIQ is a member of the RHEV Certified Partner program.
In addition to Red Hat's software, ManageIQ also works with cloud and virtualization software and services from Amazon, Microsoft, and VMware.
ManageIQ is based in Mahwah, New Jersey, with offices in New York, Surrey, England, and Munich, Germany.
ManageIQ's CEO Albion Fitzgerald has had much experience developing and then selling companies that sell IT management software. He was CEO of IT configuration management software provider Novadigm, which was purchased by Hewlett Packard in 2004. He was also CEO for enterprise systems management software Telemetrix, which was acquired by a Computer Associates subsidiary in 1988. Prior to leading these companies, he worked at IBM for a decade as a systems and network manager.
Red Hat expects the acquisition to have no material impact to Red Hat revenue for its fiscal year that ends in February 2013. The ManageIQ operation will increase Red Hat operating expenses by about $2 million a quarter.
Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com
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